The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-08-22
THE wATEIs QUESTION.

|
Saturday night made an interesting
report to the city council on the vexa-
tions problem of q better water sup
ply for the city. After estimating
and computing the separate and ag-
gregate supplies from all the pure
water sources, and showing that all to-
qether are insufficient for the demand
of this city at present, to say nothing
of the rapidly increasing demand, Mr..
Tichenor then refers TO the plan OF
storage reservoir as recommended by
Engineers Smith and Davis. OF the
latter he says;
The plans of Smith and Davis pro-
vide for storage reservoirs OF ABOUT
3O0,00O,000 gallons to be filled from
surface drainage the country to be
drained is now valuable farm LANDS
that are being continually titled and
pastured, and are evidently accumula-
ting decaying animals aud vegetable
matter in quantity sufficient ia pollute
a LARGE volume of water, and the lack
of rainfall for the past two years
would render unsafe reliance on
such sources for a general supply
The boring of artcsian wells no
thinks is i'll advised.
"The history of artisian wells" he
saws " III this country and Europe
will bear me out III the prediction
| that no adequate supply can be OBJ
tanned without the expenditure OF
much greater sums of money than this
CITY can think Of entertaining. Then
the risk of encountering poisonous
minerals, and of exhausting the funds
or supply, is to be estimated. Hence
| I would recomend and earnestly re-
quest your honorable body to delay
| further experiment in that direction
until scientific geological reports can
| be obtained that will warrant perma-
nent abandonment or vigeros pros
ecution of such work"
And coming down to the point,
lMr. Tichenor recommends the carly
Improvement of the only source OF
SUPPLY we have. The water problem
| is yexatious when there is no water
in the question. Dallas would GER
| do well to increase and purify that
water which we have, and make ex-
periments aiterward-improve that
which we already haye, and then
continue the search for something bet
ter. Continuing his report, Mr.. Itch
enor says:
GAN of the plans i'll your pos
session point to the river or Elm
Fork rs contingency or reserve IN
, the event of failure or shortage III the
proposed supply, and none are so bold
as TO offer an unlimited amount With
ont its aid. Now, since the proposed
plans only in part point to the river
= why not depend thereon for the en-
tire volume, holding in storage reser-
voirs sufficient quantity of water to
supply the city for six to twelve
months, TO be taken from the river at
n time when the volume is so great
that the dreaded Fort Worth sewage
cannot contaminate. The river OF
| Elm FORK is, Ill my opinioh, aucl""',
| and feasible as a source of supply ana
l also the most economic. l would
therefore recommend that all OF the
available moneys be expended in It's
publication and permanent adapta'
ton for IL supply"
1t will in all probability be years be-
fore Dallas will develop supply O.
, pure water abundant enough for the
city's supply; hence, it seems that il
would be good policy, and in the di'
rection of health and economy, to pro
, vide reservoir and filtration for thu
( supply we have NOW and are NOW
FORCED no USE. Certainly the pres
ent generation arc entitled to som'
. consideration. 1t was not intended
, that future generations (nor promot
ers OF schemes) should derive all thu
benefit of the funds to procure bette
, water.